Performance Measurement in the Public Sector in Developing Countries

This three-day professional development workshop is designed for government and development partner officials interested in gaining practical knowledge and skills to successfully establish, manage and sustain a citizen accountability-centred performance measurement system/programme in a public sector, service-focused organisation. A key focus of the course is understanding the crucial role citizens can play in providing information on the performance of frontline service providers, which can then be used by management to continuously demand accountability for their improved performance, and improved service delivery.

Upcoming training workshop

Course name:

Performance Measurement in the Public Sector in Developing Countries

Dates:

to be scheduled

Duration:

3 days

Venue:

Accra, Ghana

Price:

1400 US$

Description

In recent years a great deal of international research attention, and more recent development practice, has been placed on the role of citizens in supporting/demanding positive changes in the performance of service-focused, public sector organisations in developing countries . What is clear is that citizen engagement must be enabled through accessible, cost-effective mechanisms that formally place sustained pressure on public sector service providers . This awareness has resulted in a number of performance-grounded, accountability mechanisms being established in public sector organisations in developing countries to increase citizen “voice” regarding service delivery and the use of public resources . However, despite these changes a central challenge regarding effective performance measurement and linked accountability in public sector organisations remains, namely, how to structure citizen participation so that it provides meaningful performance information, rather than tokenistic participation that provides unreliable information. This is vital, as the vast majority of performance-based accountability mechanisms established in recent years are entirely dependant on volunteerism; it is simply not economically viable for public sector organisations to pay for the information generated through citizen engagement with formal accountability mechanisms, such as a hotline, focus group discussions, or customer satisfaction surveys. Therefore, any effective and sustainable performance measurement system must recognise the volunteer factor, and be designed in a way that is accessible for all groups of adult citizens, i.e. rural, urban, low-income, young, old, and all ethnic groups. Other important factors to consider in the design of a cost-effective, and viable, performance measurement system concerns the use of new technologies, such as mobile telephones and computer networks, the later of which can provide real-time performance information to managers interested in tracking employee performance and service delivery results.

This course will explore and discuss these issues so that participants gain an in-depth understanding of the factors that contribute to the successful establishment of a performance measurement system or programme in a public sector, service-focused organisation. This course is aimed at practitioners; following the course they will be expected to immediately use their new knowledge and skills to support a new, or existing, government partner to establish an effective performance measurement programme that provides new sources of information that can be used for informed decision-making, and sustained improvements in the provision of government services to citizens.

Objective

The overall workshop objective is to provide participants with a good foundation understanding as to how performance measurement/management can be used to drive improve service delivery performance in public sector organisations.

Audience

The target audience of this course are: (i) public sector managers, in particular those working in service-focused organisations; (ii) staff from non-governmental organisations interested in working with government to improve service delivery; and, (iii) officials from development agencies interested in supporting government partners to improve their performance.

Pre-requisites

There are no pre-requisites for this course.

Learning outcomes

By the end of the course participants will:

• Be aware of the context for performance measurement in the pubic sector in developing countries

• Understand the emergence of performance measurement in the public sector in OECD countries

• Have a good understanding of the pitfalls in the design of a performance measurement system

• Know the best features of a performance measurement system

• Know the main categories of information for a performance measurement system

• Be able to list, and implement, the 8 main steps in implementing a performance measurement system

• Have a good foundation knowledge of how to design a performance measurement system

• Understand the importance of paying attention to national statistics-related issues

• Have a good understanding of common and emerging performance measurement frameworks

• Be confident enough to lead the establishment of performance measurement systems in public sector organisations.

Learning methods

The learning methods will include the following

• Introduction to key concepts through the “teaching and discussion” methods

• The use of original source material of key writers/thinkers in this area (to show that it is a subject, outside the “donor world”)

• The use of examples from many different countries with different experiences to illustrate the points put across

• The use of exercises to provoke thinking and consolidate skills

• The use of major case studies – to illustrate in more detail some of the key points of the course.

Jonathan Caseley

Principal instructor

Experience:Jonathan Caseley, Ph.D. is from New Zealand and brings more than sixteen years international development and training experience and immense understanding and a wide set of solution tools to the idilmat Capacity Development Network on governance, governance, public sector management, citizen demand for accountability, and performance management expert.

Norman Flynn

Guest speaker

Experience:Norman Flynn is from the United Kingdom and brings extensive experience on public policy to the idilmat capacity development network. He has both strong academic as well as practitioner credentials.